Kasa kaltevia kuvia

Olin valmis hyppäämään junasta joka pysäkillä, jäämään juuri siihen. Sveitsi on lähellä sydäntäni, tajusin. Oli niin vehreää. Niin turkoosia. Niin ihanaa!

I realized Switzerland is very dear to me: I was ready to jump out of the train at every station and just stick around. It was so lush. So turqoise. So wonderful!

Miss you Suisse!
Bye now.

Right before it was time to go

Spring growing on my plate, again. Funny telemark-days, on piste. Patrouille de Glacier and the beginning of the finish line, seen from my balcony. Sunbathing, in my bed! Chilled out walks and a mud-slide in the forest. Loads of coffee in a bar where only local grannies go to play bingo.

The last days in the mountains passed by.

Then the usual: pack, scrub and go.

Last turns of the season

So. The sun came out. I went skiing. There was some fresh powder snow. And then it got cloudy again.

Hah hah YES I'm serious. It's true!

These pics are from the last run of the day. Thanks to my roomie for the first shot, I really like it!

Temparature is supposed to jump up to twenty-something tomorrow, so sounds like skiing's pretty much done now. The summer may come, I think I'm ready.

Like in December, but better

The weather is again anything but spring, but yet I made a springly salad for lunch: rocket, fresh coriander, avocado, strawberries and olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Yummy. My body is screaming for fresh stuff! And I must say that this particular avocado and these particular strawberries had an amazing flavor, structure and texture.

Then up the mountain again. Easy-acces powder in the snowfall with friends. Is it really end of April?? Feels like December, except snow's better. And my legs, too, hah hah.

Got the feeling my posts are getting slightly repetitious.. But that's how it has been, just more snow, more skiing, few openings for the sun and then again more snow and more skiing.. It has been actually totally amazing to be off duty now, really making the most out of my mountainous free-time. Soooo blessed. What an end of the season we're having here! Whoa.

I see blue

Yesterday I woke up and saw the color blue from my skylight window. Blue!

''I can see blue, let's go skiing!!''

So we did and indeed there was sunshine and powder snow. And nearly nobody up in the mountain! Little end-of-the-season dessert, the cherry on top. Happy days!

The summer is supposed to hit in before the end of the week. We shall see..

Looking at Zermatt form a distance

A friend had to drive to Zermatt, so I joined in just for the sake of joining. We never actually get all the way up to Zermatt (it's a carless village) but actually just looked at it from a distance. Entertaining, yes. Loads of coffee was consumed and loads of bullshit talked. We came up with a five year -plan: to visit Zermatt. Because it's actually really close by!

Also, it kept rainy-snowy-cloudy all week long apart from Tuesday. Then hopes were up for today and indeed the sun came up! Our pretty little mountain-playground gave us some perfectly lovely spring-time skiing. Happyhappy!

Oh by the way it's raining-snowing-clouding again.. Come on spring, come ooooon!

A braid, not afraid

This is so funny!

***

One of my real-life favorites from this winter is this:
Miss A.: I like your braid!
Me: Oh thanks!
Mr S.: What are you afraid?

He couldn't believe we girls we actually speaking about hair under the heavy snowfall, goggles and jackets covering everything but your nose.

I'm also one of the most color-coded chicks in Town, it has got ridiculous -all my stuff is green and pink! I've given up in the fight against it already, I just like the combination of green and pink in my skiing stuff.. So, live with it! But seems like I'm not the only girl with color-issues: yesterday I went skiing with Miss Purple and Miss Turqoise, today Miss Blue confessed and Miss Pink was nodding at her side in understanding. And nobody has got like this on purpose, of course! It. Just. Happens. Isn't that right, girls?

One of the girls was upset after the loss of her beanie. It was the one that matched her snowboard pants.

April fun

I am filled with happiness from yesterday.

To start with, first time in few weeks the sun decided to show up if you went through the clouds high enough. (And yes, I re-burned my face of course..)

Then just good things were to come. My roomie opened the track to Catwalk and we were then the only two people up there -and the first two people to ride down of course. The snow was super duper fun, clouds kept away while we did our turns and for the first time this season I got the feeling that yes, I can actually telemark! That all made me so so happy. I'm so so happy!

Definately one of the best runs this spring -easy, good, fun. We girls had big smiles for the rest of the day and we filled the mountains with happy giggles.

Thank you the month of April, you are loved once again.

Hämmentävä sää

Hämmentävä sää jatkuu! Tuntuu kuin asuisimme kummituskylässä.  /The weather keeps acting strange! Feels like we're living in a ghost village.

I'm actually on holiday. Feels funky. So what am I supposed to do with all this time?

Honestly, I should do piles and piles of admin. (But I detest admin says a moany little voice inside my head. Detest!) The flip-side of moving around, there's always some extra admin to do when changing countries. Doing ten million things at the same time. Work on your managing skills, scatter-brain!

Keep calm and always breathe.

Almost like winter

It's almost like winter again! Just warmer. And so much more chilled out!

Hello snowflakes

Hello world, hello friends! Hello little wet snowflakes falling on my nose! Smells like springtime pow, how exciting!

Someone is toring apart the big fat layer of grayness above us: I can see a glimpse of light blue hues from my skylight window. I don't mind. I don't mind of the shiny skies, I don't mind of the wet flakes neither -either way is good. But I have truly enjoyed of the calm rainy days. It's like the mountains want to meditate, too. So good for us to slow down.

A dear friend of mine put up a quote I really liked. This is how it goes: ''The only way to get what you really want is to let go of what you don't want.'' Iyanla Vanzant

So simple. So wise.

P.S. Happy choco-egg times chicklings!

Vielä tai enää



Vaikka pesukonetta tuijottaa, se ei pese nopeammin. Huomasin juuri. Tulos on lähes vastakkainen.

Pää ja kroppa eivät kytkeydy tänään, laskeminen oli absurdi kokemus. Sitten sinne tuli joku pilvikin, aurinkoni eteen. Lihasmuisti osasi kuitenkin tuoda minut alas. Alkaa olla aika paljon tahmaista sohjoa, traverseilla meinaa free-heeleri lentää nassulleen.

Kevät tuntuu kuitenkin ihanalta. Ihanalta tuntuu myös ajatus säätiedotusten lupailemasta lumisateesta -jospa sitä valkoista ja pehmeää sittenkin tulisi vielä!

Kautta jäljellä kuukausi, oho! Vielä vai enää, valitse itse.

Peace and love

Join neljä kuppia kahvia tänään. Laiton pääsiäis-tipuja jonoon. En pystynyt keskittymään fenkoliin. Kylässä +15 ja aurinkoa. Vuorilla kevätlunta. Minulla alppisukset (!!!!) testissä ja kappas kun elämä muuttui helpommaksi. Ha!

Peace and love.

En keksi edes otsikkoa

Halusin blogata jotain Verbier Extreme -viikonlopusta ja keväästä ja aurinkoisista lounaista terassilla ja paljosta hyväntuulisesta naurusta ja hyvästä fiiliksestä, mutta teksti ei kulje. Koitin aloittaa ''ulkona tuoksuu keväälle'' mutta se takuuvarma keväinen lehmänpaskan leuhahdus ei kuulostanut ihan sille mitä hain. En keksi edes otsikkoa.

Kämppä näyttää hiihtopummi-läävältä. Apua. Tädit ei ehdi näköjään tiskata kun pitää nauraa siellä terassilla ja töissäkin muistaa käydä.

Helikopteri-pelastusvakuutuksen kortti tuli tänään postissa. Se olisi voimassa ensi vuoden helmikuun loppuun..

Lunch break

Me so happy!

Went for a little run during my lunch break. First skinning for a bit, after some steps boot-back and then an easy run down: top was nice and fluffy pow (allthough on tracks) and the end superfun spring snow! Yay! If snow can be like velvet, this was it -I loooove spring-time skiing! Little bit sweating going up and some good fun coming down -there's indeed worse ways to spend your lunch-time hours! Life here can get quite sweet..

Plus I had a yummy avocado-camembert sandwich for lunch, in the lift on my way back to work.

You don't need much more. Just water and maybe a headstand every now and then.

Becoming a panda, or maybe an owl

First we got some more snow, then the sun came out. Both conditions ment skiing.

The girls convinced me to join them and go to the Backside. Haven't been there for a long time and only couple of times on telemarks, so I was somewhat iffy about it. The iffyness then turned out so, that I got really shit scared in the beginning and then again during that tiny little ten metre hike we did (I was sure my feet wouldn't stick on the wall and I'd slip and roll all the way down to the bottom of the mountain and die, and the thought of it made me want to cry). It was windy, the snow counditions at the top were hard for me and it felt like we had been at the Himalayas in 8000 metres instead of the odd 3000 in the Alps. (I guess this is the downside of having a head full of imagination.)

But once the worse part was over, I actually enjoyed it again. The sun. The mountains. So peacefull.

The world is such a pretty place!

The day made me look like a panda. Or an owl. (I prefer the owl, because they can fly.) In other words, my face feels slightly sunburned where the helmet and goggles hasn't covered the skin. Better get myself some sun block.

(Thanks to my roomie for the last pic.)

Puhaltaa

Föhn-tuuli alkoi puhaltaa. Aloin loikkia, hävitin kolmiulotteisuuden, halusin soittaa mantra-musiikkia töissä ja leikin kurkea. Kun samainen tuuli alkoi puhaltaa täällä keväällä 2004, me kaikki menimme sekaisin. Tunnusbiisinä oli Blur -Song 2. Ei muistettu siitä mitään muuta kuin ''when I was young'' ja ''wohoo!'' ja varmuuden vuoksi laulettiin illan viimeisessä ski-bussissa repeatilla näitä kyseisiä kohtia pelkät hiihtokerrastot ja lumilautakengät asusteina. Mummelit, meidän kanssamatkustajat, hihitti -myös seuraavana aamuna, kun satuttiin taas samaan bussiin.

Tuuli. Alan heti ajatella sitä epäonnen tuulta, joka García Márquezin novellin (La increíble y triste historia de la candida Erendira y su abuale desalmada) alussa alkaa puhaltaa, kun Erendira on kylvettämässä isoäitiä. Se on päähenkilön henkilökohtainen epäonnen tuuli. Empezó el viento de su desgracia. (Ilmaisusta tuli suosittu meidän kirjallisuuden opiskelijoiden porukan keskuudessa, varsinainen käsite.) Siirryn päässäni Rulfon kaameaan Comalaan (Pedro Páramo), jossa tuuli kuljettaa lehtiä vaikka Comalassa ei ole edes puita. Oliko Comalan tuulessa jotain muutakin outoa? Puhalsiko se aina, ajoi ihmiset hulluuden partaalle? En muista. Jotain oleellista siihen kuitenkin liittyi, jotain tunnelman kannalta merkittävää. Puhalsiko Comalassa aina iltapäivisin ja kuljetti mukanaan leikkivien lasten ääniä, vaikkei Comalassa ollut lapsiakaan? Olisinpa kirjahyllyni ääressä. Tarkastaisin ja lukisin Pedro Páramon saman tien uudestaan.

Kapkaupungissa alkoi aina tuulla joulun jälkeen. Se oli vaivaannuttavaa ja sitä saattoi kestää viikkotolkulla. Cape Doctor, se se oli, siivosi saasteet toisaalle ja puhdisti ilmaa. Riepotteli kaikkea mikä tielle sattui osumaan, ei paljoa kysellyt. Ajoiko sekin kaupungin hulluuden partaalle? Ehkä osittain. Mutta ei se ainakaan mikään miellyttäväkään tuuli ollut. Devil's Peakin juurella tälläinen pienehkö nais-ihminen saattoi lähteä lentoon sen mukana.

Tuulissa on jotain selittämätöntä. Tuulen tuntee, mutta siitä ei saa kiinni. Tuulen voi nimetä, mutta sen muotoa on vaikea nähdä ja kulkua hankala ennustaa. Tuuli on vapaa, sitä ei voi laittaa häkkiin. Ehkä se juuri suunnattomalla villillä vapaudellaan saa meidät ihmiset hulluiksi.

The world is playing tricks on me

Cleaning my head, dusting my thoughts. Ha! Little birds singing in there, somewhere behind my left ear.

Funny little something happened today and proved that the world still loves me. I've had a slightly shitty week. But then got my spirits back, started humming again, started thinking of pelicans, hammocks, harem-pants and got obsessed with a pair of shoes. A pair of mustard-colored leather shoes. Oh please please please! Uhm yes how vain, but.. somethimes it's good to go vain, it means that finally you don't have that much to worry.

The weather would be perfect for horse-riding. Wish I could just saddle up and go. Instead I took my telemarks today and did few turns, basically just to get enjoy a cup of coffee up in the mountains, under the sun. Fresh air's the best!

Oh, and have a happy little weekend luvlies!

Making a new set of tracks

Things never go the way you have predicted, yet it's still good to keep on planning and trying.

One of my bigger plans got rejected today. I was a bit sad about it for five minutes, but then started to look out for other options. Maybe this will lead to something better? I believe there's always a meaning behind these things. You might not know it by the time it happens, but then later on it seems so clear and you end up thinking ''this is exactly how it was supposed to turn out''. Anyway, if you can't take the pathway you planned, you better make a new set of tracks: it's no good to cry at the crossing.

Have to say though that with my previous plan, I was being smart. Now it seems that I might have to go bit crazy again. We'll see, the turn out won't be clear until next year anyway.

Just going with the flow then. Trusting the world will take care of me and smiling on the go.

:-)

Rendez-vous with the spring

Yesterday I woke up in pain. My neck was stiff all the way down to my left shoulder, I couldn't turn my head at all and any move simply hurt. So for my disappointment skiing was clearly out of a question.

But instead we girls went for a good walk -and found the spring!

Last sentence (I asked my roommate for it): Helmet is something I won't need.